Japanese i-adjective

akai — red 赤い

Explore the principal positive, negative, past, non-past and conditional forms of this Japanese adjective.

How i-adjectives conjugate

The final changes to create negative, past and connecting forms. The adjective itself carries this grammatical information, so a separate verb is not required in the plain forms.

Conjugation table

The English glosses are approximate; the natural translation depends on the surrounding sentence.

Form Style Positive Negative
Present (non-past) Plain is red akai 赤い is not red akakunai 赤くない
Polite akai desu 赤いです akakunai desu 赤くないです
Past Plain was red akakatta 赤かった was not red akakunakatta 赤くなかった
Polite akakatta desu 赤かったです akakunakatta desu 赤くなかったです
Presumptive Plain will probably be red akai darō 赤いだろう akakunai darō 赤くないだろう
Polite akai deshō 赤いでしょう akakunai deshō 赤くないでしょう
Conditional Standard if it is red akakereba 赤ければ if it is not red akakunakereba 赤くなければ
Connecting form Standard akakute 赤くて akakunakute 赤くなくて

These conjugations are generated automatically and are intended as a learning guide. Check the natural usage in context when accuracy is important.